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In todays workplace, layoffs are no longer raretheyre a reality many employees have seen up close or have experienced themselves. On LinkedIn, the posts seem endless, each one paired with the now-familiar Open to Work banner. Or even more jarring: a coworkers Slack avatar is green one minute and grayed out the nextbefore disappearing altogether. When a teammate is suddenly let go, the instinct is often to comfort them, respond thoughtfullysay the right thing, offer support, and help them feel less alone. But in the emotional blur that follows a layoff, even well-intentioned comments can land poorly, and certain reactions can unintentionally make the moment harder. So how do you genuinely show up for a colleague or friend whos just been laid offwithout overstepping, fumbling the moment, or offering advice that does more harm than good? Do ask: How can I help you? According to organizational psychologist Erica Pieczonka, many of us have a reflex when someone we care about is going through a hard time. We jump straight into fix-it mode: “Something bad happenedlet me give you a solution.” But sometimes, people dont need advice at all. They just need someone to listen, Pieczonka explained. Maryland-based Stefanie Magness, who was laid off in 2019 from her role in public affairs, echoed this perspective. If you know someone who is experiencing a layoff, resist the urge to offer advice or solutions. Just be there,” she said. “Sit in the room together or bring a meal for them. Even a text that says ‘I’m thinking of you’ can mean the world to someone who feels like their life is unraveling. While it might be hard to resist offering a list of solutions, Pieczonka suggests asking, What kind of support do you want right now? or Do you want me to listen, or do you want me to solution with you? She added: Keeping it light and small, versus dumping on them, will help. Because really, during layoffs, they’re already feeling completely overwhelmed. Dont say: Youll bounce back When speaking with someone who has faced a layoff, its important not to fill them with empty reassurances. Pieczonka explained that this might look like: Oh, you’ll bounce back. You got this, you’re a superstar, you’ll move on. There’s something better for you. Magness said that one unhelpful comment she often heard was: “Something better is coming.” “People love to say this when the world is falling apart. Yes, maybe it is, but when you are standing in the chaos, you are not thinking of what is coming. You’re just trying to breathe. For Ohio-based Kyle Rankert, who was laid off in 2020 from his role in healthcare, it’s this: You’ll land on your feet. You always do!” “That one always made me feel like the person just assumed, Hey, you’ve been lucky so far, and you’ll be lucky again, Rankert said. Although it might sound helpful, empty reassurances often fail to validate someones experience of grief, sadness, or anger. Pieczonka explained that, hypothetically, this is how someone in that position might be feeling: “It feels like you’re not seeing me. I need you to see me.” So avoiding those types of phrases can be really important. Christina Muller, a workplace mental health expert at R3 Continuum, a national HR and workplace behavioral health agency, expressed a similar sentiment. People want to feel validated. They want to know that people care. And saying something as simple as, I know this must be a really difficult time right now. I understand how this would be really hard, helps them feel that validation, she said. When someone goes through a layoff, focus on listening. Resist empty platitudes and allow them to express their emotions without trying to fix or minimize what theyre feeling. Do offer: your time Sometimes, supporting a colleague or friend whos been laid off doesnt require solving problemsit can be as simple as spending time together. If you know somebody who got laid off, just asking them to coffee to catch up can be helpful, Pieczonka said. You can also offer healthy habits to do together. Do you want to go on a walk together? Should we get a yoga class? she suggested. Muller offered a similar approach, encouraging colleagues to simply offer their time, especially if theyre struggling with the layoff: I’m thinking about you, and I’d appreciate being a support for you. Let me know if maybe you’d like to go for a walk sometime, or if there’s anything else that would make you feel best supported right now. Supporting them and maintaining small routines can help prevent the downward spiral that often follows a major life change. You dont even need to bring up the layoff. Just be their friend. In conversation, the person who got laid off will probably bring it up and ask for a favor, but you don’t have to feel the pressure to do that. Just being with them and connecting with them is gift enough sometimes, Pieczonka said. Simply being present is the most meaningful support you can offer. Dont assume: a layoff is the same for everyone Its important to remember that a layoff doesnt mean the same thing for everyone. Some people may even feel a sense of relief or excitement, especially if they had already been thinking about leaving their job. Maybe they had one foot out the door, and now they’re going to get some severance pay and have more freedom to look elsewhere, Muller explained. Understanding where someone is coming from matters, and if youre reaching out, you might already have a sense of that based on your relationship with them. Do offer: helpful tools if you have them When you do offer help, its best to give people the option rather than assuming what they need. Sometimes people feel a little awkward accepting help from a friend in certain ways, and they might not know if certain things are in your wheelhouse, Muller said. She added: I always encourage people to preface any ask with, I understand if this isn’t something you’re thinking about right now or want to do. But I’d be happy to help you look at your résumé, if that’s something you’re interested in. Or, even check to see if theyd be interested in roles at your company. I wish more people who truly knew me would have asked around at their own companies, looking to see who needed help where, Rankert said. Following Mullers advice, this could look like: I understand if this isn’t something you’re thinking about, but Id be happy to look to see if my company has any openings. Just giving them the option ensures youre not overstepping by assuming what they need, or forcing favrs, even if your intentions are good. Showing up for a colleague after a layoff doesnt have to be complicated. Overall, avoid empty reassurances, dont assume you know what they need, and resist jumping into fix-it mode. Instead, listen, offer support in manageable ways, and simply be present.
Category:
E-Commerce
AI promises a smarter, faster, more efficient future, but beneath that optimism lies a quiet problem thats getting worse: the data itself. We talk a lot about algorithms, but not enough about the infrastructure that feeds them. The truth is, innovation cant outpace the quality of its inputs, and right now those inputs are showing signs of strain. When the foundation starts to crack, even the most advanced systems will falter. A decade ago, scale and accuracy could go hand-in-hand. But today, those goals often pull in opposite directions. Privacy regulations, device opt-ins, and new platform restrictions have made high-quality, first-party data harder than ever to capture. To fill the gap, the market has flooded itself with recycled, spoofed, or inferred signals that look legitimate but arent. The result is a strange new reality where a mall that closed two years ago still shows foot traffic, or a car dealership appears to be busy at midnight. These anomalies may seem like innocent glitches, but theyre actually the result of a data ecosystem that values quantity over credibility. When Volume Becomes Noise For years, the industry believed that more data meant better insights. Volume signaled strength. More inputs meant more intelligence. But abundance now equals distracting noise. To preserve scale, some suppliers have resorted to filler data or fake signals that make dashboards look healthy while eroding their reliability and authenticity. Once bad data enters the system, its nearly impossible to separate. Its like mixing a few expired Cheerios into a fresh box; you cant tell which pieces are stale, but you can taste the difference. And at scale, that difference compounds exponentially. The AI Paradox Ironically, AI is both part of the problem and part of the solution. Every model depends on training data, and if that foundation is flawed, the insights it produces will be, too. Feed it junk, and it will confidently deliver the wrong conclusions. Anyone whos used ChatGPT has probably felt this frustration firsthand. While it is an incredibly helpful tool, there are times when it still gives you an inaccurate answer or hallucination. You ask a question, and it promptly delivers a detailed answer with absolute confidence . . . except its all wrong. For a moment, it sounds convincing enough to believe. But once you catch the error, that small seed of doubt sets in. Do it a few more times, and the doubt takes over. Thats what happens when data quality breaks down: the story still looks complete, but you cant be sure whats real. At the same time, AI gives us new tools to clean up the mess it inherits by flagging inconsistencies. A restaurant showing visitors on Sundays when its closed? A shuttered mall suddenly bustling again? Those are the patterns AI can catch if trained properly. Still, no single company can solve this alone. Data integrity relies on every link in the chain, from collectors and aggregators to analysts and end users, taking responsibility for what they contribute. Progress will come not from more data, but from more transparency about the data we already have. Quality Over Quantity We can no longer assume that more data automatically means better data, and thats okay. The focus needs to shift from collecting everything to curating what counts, building high-confidence data streams that can be verified. Leaner datasets built on reliable signals consistently produce clearer, more defensible insights than mountains of questionable information. Many organizations still equate size with credibility. But the real question isnt how much data you have, its how true it is. The Human Element Changing how people think about data is harder than changing the technology itself. Teams resist new workflows. Partners worry that less means losing visibility or control. But smaller, smarter datasets often reveal more than massive ones ever could because the signals they contain are real. But once trust is lost, insights lose its value. Rebuilding that belief through transparency, validation, and collaboration has become just as critical as the algorithms themselves. AI wont erase the data problem; it will magnify it. We need to be disciplined enough to separate signals from noise and confident enough to admit that more isnt always better. Because the real advantage isn’t having endless data. Its knowing what to leave behind.
Category:
E-Commerce
There are three kinds of annoying colleagues. I have already written about dealing with annoying bosses and colleagues. What happens if the source of your annoyance is one of your direct reports? Once again, dealing with what bothers you depends a lot on what it is causing the problem. Here are four common causes of annoyance. 1. The one who sucks up It is natural for people who are ambitious to want to find ways to get ahead. Obviously, doing great work is important, but a little self-promotion cant hurt either. After all, if you have lots of direct reports, you may not notice everything that everyone is doing. So, you should expect that the folks who work for you will let you know what they have accomplished. In fact, you should encourage that. But, some of your direct reports mistake the need to keep you apprised on their successes for a need to suck up. Sucking up means engaging in constant flattery, giving you constant compliments, and otherwise trying to ingratiate themselves to you in ways that are not productive or mission focused. They may do it in one-on-one meetings as well as in more public settings. It is worth chatting to your suck-ups about this. Let them know that you appreciate their intention to be kind, but that you want to stay focused on the work that needs to be done. It is important to help them to see that this behavior is having the opposite influence from what they intend. The sooner that the suck-ups learn this lesson, the better it will be for everyone. 2. The one who has no initiative The most successful people in the workplace are those who find the next task that needs to be done and then makes progress on it without waiting to be told what needs to happen. Unfortunately, a lot of people who report to you may do only what they have been told to do and no more. As a result, you may feel like you need to micromanage your supervisees to-do lists. You should remember that many people in the rising generation of people in the workplace grew up in a world in which everything was scheduled for them. School, activities, even playdates were arranged. Even many college students are in settings in which they have little free choice. It can be hard for people who grew up with all that structure to suddenly take initiative. You have to teach that. When you find yourself annoyed that your reports arent finding new tasks to do, add a section to your meetings with them. Have them identify one or two things you havent assigned for them that they could do. Talk through with them how to recognize things that need to be done. Youre building a new set of habits, and that will take time. It requires some effort on your part at first, but it pays off in the long-run. 3. The one who (unintentionally) pushes your buttons Everyone has pet peevesno matter how laid back you appear to be. I tend to be loose about lots of things, but there are a few things that can really get me going. For example, when people use the word impact as a verb, it sets my teeth on edge. There are some people in this world whose default settings are designed to knock into every one of your peeves. As a result, engaging with them can set your skin crawling before they even say a word. When that person has some amount of power, then you may just have to grin and bear it. But, you can lay out some ground rules when those people are your direct reports. When I bring on a new team or start working with someone new, I usually give them a small list of things to avoid. It is amazing how that simple conversation makes so much of life go better later. 4. The one who is passive-aggressive The least benign of the annoying direct reports is the individual who is conflict avoidant but still needs to let you know when they are annoyed. These folks fall under the heading of passive-aggressive. They wont come out and tell you that they are annoyed, frustrated, or angry, but they let it out in other ways. These days, it is common to have a few direct reports who have this profile. We dont teach good conflict skills, and so people are reluctant to speak up when something bothers them. Then, their bad feelings leak out in other ways. Like the individuals who dont take initiative, you have to teach your reports to state their conflicts more directly and to create an environment in which it is safe to do that. You need to call out the passive aggressive behavior when you see it as quickly as possible (avoiding public embarrassment, of course). Then, discuss with your direct report that they need to talk out their concerns. Developing their skills to engage in difficult conversations will benefit these individuals immensely.
Category:
E-Commerce
Calibri and Times New Roman have been at war for years. And now the two fonts are once again pitted against each other after the U.S. State Department declared it will be swapping its current official typeface, Calibri, for Times New Roman. It’s a full-circle moment, considering the State Department ditched Times New Roman for Calibri in just 2023. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that switching to Calibri was “wasteful” and “achieved nothing except the degradation of the departments official correspondence” in an internal department memo obtained by Reuters and The New York Times. The type designer behind the sans-serif font Calibri calls Rubio’s decision “hilarious and regrettable.” Lucas de Groot designed Calibri in 2007 specifically for readability on computer screens. The width and curvature of its simple letterform was optimized to be easy to read, and it replaced Times New Roman as the default font in Microsoft Office in 2007 (before being replaced by Aptos in 2023). In 2023, the State Department decided to replace Times New Roman with Calibri for all official communications and memos. It was a bid for greater accessibility throughout the organization. At the time, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Times New Roman can introduce accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities who use Optical Character Recognition technology or screen readers. Not everyone was happy about the decision, but de Groot believes it was the right choice. “There were sound reasons for moving away from Times,” de Groot tells Fast Company in an email. “Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors, whereas serif fonts like Times New Roman tend to appear more distorted.” [Animation: FC] A DEI typeface In the cable, sent with the subject line “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” Rubio called Calibri “informal” and said it “clashes” with State letterhead. He also criticized it as a “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiative. Blinken, Rubio’s predecessor, made the 2023 change to Calibri at the recommendation of the department’s office of diversity and inclusion due its accessibility and ease to read for people with disabilities. Now it’s getting swept up in Trump’s wider war on “woke.” Times New Roman (top), Calibri (bottom) Serif typefaces, with their small feet, or serifs, on the letterform, are sometimes perceived to be more conservative. Meanwhile, some believe that sans serifs read as more modern and progressive, though that’s far from a hard-and-fast rule. After all, Trump loves a sans serif font, and Sen. Bernie Sanders has leaned into serif typography for his campaign logos. “Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, but they are also more demanding to use effectively,” says de Groot, noting the spacing is noticeably inconsistent in all-caps Times New Roman in words like “Chicago” and the font appears too thin and sharp when printed at high quality. For many readers, though, font preference has less to do with politics than it does personal taste and what they’re used to seeing. There were inter-office complaints when the State Department switched to Calibri that sound an awful lot like normal office grumblings when one has to switch from Slack to Teams. “I think the idea that a typeface is woke is kind of ridiculous,” says type designer Jonathan Hoefler, who designed the Biden-Harris typography and is the co-author of Gotham, a typeface that’s now been used by presidential candidates of both parties. Typefaces aren’t good or bad, he says. They are simply designed to solve different problems. Times New Roman was designed for newspaper text and Calibri was designed for a screen. “None of these are bad typefaces, theyre just designed around their circumstances,” he says.
Category:
E-Commerce
The consulting firm McKinsey and womens nonprofit Lean In just released their annual Women in the Workplace report, which examines how gender disparities are impacting womens career prospects. Unfortunately, this years results show that companies are backsliding on their commitment to workplace equityand one way thats harming women is by making it more difficult for them to work remotely. This is the 11th annual Women in the Workplace report, and its results reflect a broader pattern across corporate America: a retreat from inclusive efforts amidst a Trump administration thats gone out of its way to cut back on DEI policies. Per the study, two in 10 companies say theyre placing low or no priority on womens career advancement, a figure that rises to three in 10 for women of color. Further, almost one in six companies scaled back on formal sponsorship and discontinued or diminished career development programs with content tailored for women. This year, only half of companies are prioritizing womens career advancement, part of a trend in declining commitment to gender diversity, the report reads. One major roadblock to womens success in the workplace is that, in our modern era of flexible work, women are penalized for choosing to work remotelydespite the fact that, at the same time, theyre still expected to shoulder most of the responsibilities in the home. Flexibility stigma: How women are penalized for working remotely McKinsey and Lean In found that women who work remotely most of the time are less likely to have a sponsor (or someone championing their career advancement) and far less likely to have been promoted in the last two years than women who work mostly on-site. In contrast, men receive similar levels of sponsorship and promotions, regardless of where they work. For context, the data showed that 49% of men who worked mostly remotely received a promotion in the last two years, compared to just 37% of women. Similarly, 52% of primarily remote men had a work sponsor, while only 37% of women could say the same. Women who came into the office more often saw a major boost in these percentages, while men saw only a small increase. On top of these existing challenges, companies are now beginning to remove flexible work options entirely. The report found that one in four companies now offer fewer remote and hybrid opportunities. Thats especially detrimental to women who, despite being more penalized for working remotely, are simultaneously expected to carry more of the burden at home. In 2024, women with partners were more than three times more likely as men to be responsible for all or more housework. And, this year, almost 25% of entry or senior level women who reported not being interested in a promotion said personal obligations made it difficult to take on more work; whereas only 15% of men said the same. Flexibility stigma is one of the biggest factors holding women back at work, the report reads. When women use flexible work arrangements, coworkers often assume they are less engaged and productive, while mens commitment is taken for granted.
Category:
E-Commerce
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